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A Central Park Balloon Man With a Heart

Victor Kerlow

Dear Diary:

At the East 59th Street entrance to Central Park, I stopped to buy a balloon sculpture for my granddaughter.

Without a posted price list, the artist created a flower, posed for a picture and presented his finished piece to a delighted child. When he asked, “Is $3 O.K.?” I gave him a five. He promised to do any repairs if it broke during the day. Who would not expect an 11-month-old to destroy it in a just a few minutes?

When we left the park a few hours later, one of the six balloons had popped. Honoring his guarantee, he carefully performed the reconstructive surgery.

No lawyers, no written contracts, no haggling â€" just a simple business transaction between two reasonable people on a beautiful day.

Read all recent entries and our updated submissions guidelines. Reach us via e-mail diary@nytimes.com or follow @NYTMetro on Twitter using the hashtag #MetDiary.



Jeff Goldblum Joins Cast of ‘Domesticated’

Jeff GoldblumNeilson Barnard/Getty Images Jeff Goldblum

Jeff Goldblum will join Laurie Metcalf this fall in the Lincoln Center Theater production of “Domesticated,” a new work by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Bruce Norris (“Clybourne Park”), the company announced on Sunday. Commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater, “Domesticated” is about a politician and his wife whose marriage is put in jeopardy by a scandal. The play is to begin preview performances Off Broadway at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on Oct. 10, with opening night set for Nov. 4. The director will be Anna D. Shapiro (“August: Osage County”), who has directed several of Mr. Norris’s plays, including “The Unmentionables” and “The Pain and the Itch.”

The theater also announced several actors for the show’s large cast, including Vanessa Aspillaga, Mia Barron, Robin De Jesus, Lizbeth Mackay, Emily Meade, Mary Beth Peil, Karen Pittman and Misha Seo. Additional casting is to be announced later.

“Domesticated” will open Lincoln Center Theater’s 2013-14 season, which also includes a new Broadway production of “Macbeth” starring Ethan Hawke; James Lapine’s adaptation of Moss Hart’s autobiography, “Act One”; and “The City of Conversation,” a new play by Anthony Giardina.



July 21: Where the Candidates Are Today

Planned events for the mayoral candidates, according to the campaigns and organizations they are affiliated with. Times are listed as scheduled but frequently change.

Joseph Burgess and Nicholas Wells contributed reporting.

Event information is listed as provided at the time of publication. Details for many of Ms. Quinn events are not released for publication.

Events by candidate

Albanese

Carrión

De Blasio

Lhota

Liu

Quinn

Weiner

Group event


Bill de Blasio
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. de Blasio proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

10 a.m.
Addresses the first of four Bronx congregations this morning, together with City Councilman Andy King, at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Olinville.

10:45 a.m.
Still accompanied by City Councilman Andy King, addresses the congregants of Greater Faith Temple Church in Wakefield.

11:15 a.m.
With City Councilman Andy King still by his side, he addresses the congregants of the Church of Pentecost in Orinville.

11:45 a.m.
Wraps up the fourth church visit of the morning with City Council member Andy King by addressing worshippers at the First United Church of Jesus Christ in the Bronx.

1 p.m.
As Long Island College Hospital gets closer to being shut down, the candidate holds a press conference that will charge the hospital and its overseers at SUNY of violating a court order mandating that the hospital remain open, at Hicks and Pacific Streets in Cobble Hill.

2:15 p.m.
Marches in the Colombian Day parade along Northern Boulevard in Queens.

3:30 p.m.
Attends and gets to show off his cooking skills at the Grace Foods Jamaican Jerk Festival, at Roy Wilkins Park in Queens.

5 p.m.
Participates in the Brooklyn Congregations United candidates forum at Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn.

John C. Liu
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Liu proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

8 a.m.
While Mr. Weiner and Mr. de Blasio cover four churches in Queens and the Bronx apiece, Mr. Liu spends time today with three congregations, two in the Bronx and one in Harlem, starting with a visit to Crawford Memorial United Methodist Church in Orinville.

10 a.m.
Heads over to the Wakefield section of the Bronx to address the second of three churches he is visiting â€" Butler United Methodist Church on Paulding Avenue.

11 a.m.
Heads back to Harlem, where he began his day, to address worshippers at the First Corinthian Baptist Church, on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.

1:30 p.m.
Attends the Family Day celebration at the Housing Authority’s Eastchester Gardens in the Bronx.

5:30 p.m.
Participates in the Brooklyn Congregations United candidates forum at Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn.

6:15 p.m.
Attends a Kabaddi tournament, a South Asian form of wrestling, at Smokey Park in the Richmond Hill section of Queens.

8 p.m.
Attends the Turning Point for Women and Families Ramadan Iftar dinner, at the Turkuaz Restaurant in Upper Manhattan.

9:30 p.m.
Celebrates Ramadan Eid with the Indigenous Muslim Travelling Association, in South Jamaica.

Joseph J. Lhota
Republican

11:45 a.m.
Marches in the Colombian Day parade along Northern Boulevard in Queens.

2 p.m.
Greets voters at the Long Island City Flea Market in Queens.

Christine C. Quinn
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Ms. Quinn proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

11 a.m.
Holds a press conference with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, calling for the M.T.A. to speed up implementation of the no-swipe MetroCard, and telling New Yorkers she would “fight for mayoral control” of the transit agency, at 43rd Street and Lexington Avenue.

Some of Ms. Quinn’s events may not be shown because the campaign declines to release her advance schedule for publication.

William C. Thompson Jr.
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Thompson proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

Anthony D. Weiner
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Weiner proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

10 a.m.
At his first of four scheduled church services of the day, all in Queens, addresses the congregants of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Flushing.

11 a.m.
Heads to East Elmhurst, where he addresses the congregants of St. Mark’s A.M.E., on Northern Boulevard.

11:30 a.m.
Before leaving East Elmhurst, he addresses the congregants of nearby First Baptist Church on Astoria Boulevard.

12:30 p.m.
At his fourth church service of the day, this one in St. Alban’s, addresses the congregants of New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ Apostolic, on Springfield Boulevard.

1:30 p.m.
After working up an appetite at speaking engagements, attends the Grace Jamaican Jerk Festival, at Roy Wilkins Park in Queens.

6 p.m.
Participates in the Brooklyn Congregations United candidates forum at Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn.

Sal F. Albanese
Democrat

11 a.m.
Marches in the Colombian Day Parade, starting in Woodside, Queens.

12:30 p.m.
Greets voters at Folk Colombiana in the Park, in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.

2 p.m.
Attends the 12th and final day of the 126th annual Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Paulias and Nola, in Williamsburg.

4:30 p.m.
Participates in the Brooklyn Congregations United candidates forum at Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn.

6 p.m.
Tours a number of spots in Rockaway to raise awareness of work he feels needs to be done to save the peninsula, starting at the toll plaza at Broad Channel.

7:15 p.m.
Attends a rally with Rockaway residents and the Queens Public Transit Committee calling for permanent ferry service to Rockaway, at Beach 116th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard.

Adolfo Carrión Jr.
Independent

2:30 p.m.
Brunch with L. Boogs, DJ on Hot 97, at Dyckman Bar in Washington Heights.

Readers with information about events involving the mayoral candidates are invited to send details and suggestions for coverage to cowan@nytimes.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @cowannyt.



July 21: Where the Candidates Are Today

Planned events for the mayoral candidates, according to the campaigns and organizations they are affiliated with. Times are listed as scheduled but frequently change.

Joseph Burgess and Nicholas Wells contributed reporting.

Event information is listed as provided at the time of publication. Details for many of Ms. Quinn events are not released for publication.

Events by candidate

Albanese

Carrión

De Blasio

Lhota

Liu

Quinn

Weiner

Group event


Bill de Blasio
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. de Blasio proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

10 a.m.
Addresses the first of four Bronx congregations this morning, together with City Councilman Andy King, at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Olinville.

10:45 a.m.
Still accompanied by City Councilman Andy King, addresses the congregants of Greater Faith Temple Church in Wakefield.

11:15 a.m.
With City Councilman Andy King still by his side, he addresses the congregants of the Church of Pentecost in Orinville.

11:45 a.m.
Wraps up the fourth church visit of the morning with City Council member Andy King by addressing worshippers at the First United Church of Jesus Christ in the Bronx.

1 p.m.
As Long Island College Hospital gets closer to being shut down, the candidate holds a press conference that will charge the hospital and its overseers at SUNY of violating a court order mandating that the hospital remain open, at Hicks and Pacific Streets in Cobble Hill.

2:15 p.m.
Marches in the Colombian Day parade along Northern Boulevard in Queens.

3:30 p.m.
Attends and gets to show off his cooking skills at the Grace Foods Jamaican Jerk Festival, at Roy Wilkins Park in Queens.

5 p.m.
Participates in the Brooklyn Congregations United candidates forum at Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn.

John C. Liu
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Liu proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

8 a.m.
While Mr. Weiner and Mr. de Blasio cover four churches in Queens and the Bronx apiece, Mr. Liu spends time today with three congregations, two in the Bronx and one in Harlem, starting with a visit to Crawford Memorial United Methodist Church in Orinville.

10 a.m.
Heads over to the Wakefield section of the Bronx to address the second of three churches he is visiting â€" Butler United Methodist Church on Paulding Avenue.

11 a.m.
Heads back to Harlem, where he began his day, to address worshippers at the First Corinthian Baptist Church, on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.

1:30 p.m.
Attends the Family Day celebration at the Housing Authority’s Eastchester Gardens in the Bronx.

5:30 p.m.
Participates in the Brooklyn Congregations United candidates forum at Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn.

6:15 p.m.
Attends a Kabaddi tournament, a South Asian form of wrestling, at Smokey Park in the Richmond Hill section of Queens.

8 p.m.
Attends the Turning Point for Women and Families Ramadan Iftar dinner, at the Turkuaz Restaurant in Upper Manhattan.

9:30 p.m.
Celebrates Ramadan Eid with the Indigenous Muslim Travelling Association, in South Jamaica.

Joseph J. Lhota
Republican

11:45 a.m.
Marches in the Colombian Day parade along Northern Boulevard in Queens.

2 p.m.
Greets voters at the Long Island City Flea Market in Queens.

Christine C. Quinn
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Ms. Quinn proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

11 a.m.
Holds a press conference with Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, calling for the M.T.A. to speed up implementation of the no-swipe MetroCard, and telling New Yorkers she would “fight for mayoral control” of the transit agency, at 43rd Street and Lexington Avenue.

Some of Ms. Quinn’s events may not be shown because the campaign declines to release her advance schedule for publication.

William C. Thompson Jr.
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Thompson proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

Anthony D. Weiner
Democrat

6 a.m.
After spending a night with a host family in a Housing Authority apartment at the suggestion of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Weiner proceeds with the other mayoral candidates who accepted the challenge to a press conference to reflect on what they learned about conditions inside city-run properties, at the Abraham Lincoln Houses in Upper Manhattan.

10 a.m.
At his first of four scheduled church services of the day, all in Queens, addresses the congregants of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Flushing.

11 a.m.
Heads to East Elmhurst, where he addresses the congregants of St. Mark’s A.M.E., on Northern Boulevard.

11:30 a.m.
Before leaving East Elmhurst, he addresses the congregants of nearby First Baptist Church on Astoria Boulevard.

12:30 p.m.
At his fourth church service of the day, this one in St. Alban’s, addresses the congregants of New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ Apostolic, on Springfield Boulevard.

1:30 p.m.
After working up an appetite at speaking engagements, attends the Grace Jamaican Jerk Festival, at Roy Wilkins Park in Queens.

6 p.m.
Participates in the Brooklyn Congregations United candidates forum at Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn.

Sal F. Albanese
Democrat

11 a.m.
Marches in the Colombian Day Parade, starting in Woodside, Queens.

12:30 p.m.
Greets voters at Folk Colombiana in the Park, in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.

2 p.m.
Attends the 12th and final day of the 126th annual Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Paulias and Nola, in Williamsburg.

4:30 p.m.
Participates in the Brooklyn Congregations United candidates forum at Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church in Brooklyn.

6 p.m.
Tours a number of spots in Rockaway to raise awareness of work he feels needs to be done to save the peninsula, starting at the toll plaza at Broad Channel.

7:15 p.m.
Attends a rally with Rockaway residents and the Queens Public Transit Committee calling for permanent ferry service to Rockaway, at Beach 116th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard.

Adolfo Carrión Jr.
Independent

2:30 p.m.
Brunch with L. Boogs, DJ on Hot 97, at Dyckman Bar in Washington Heights.

Readers with information about events involving the mayoral candidates are invited to send details and suggestions for coverage to cowan@nytimes.com. You can also follow us on Twitter @cowannyt.



A Closing Adds to the Vacancies on Piano Row

Carl Demler, the owner of Beethoven Pianos, a shop on West 58th Street in Manhattan. Mr. Demler is closing the store but hopes to move to another storefront on the street. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Carl Demler, the owner of Beethoven Pianos, a shop on West 58th Street in Manhattan. Mr. Demler is closing the store but hopes to move to another storefront on the street.

The department stores set fashion trends from the Civil War to World War I in what became known as Ladies’ Mile, which straddled Broadway in the Flatiron district. Later on, the car dealers did their haggling along Automobile Row, from Broadway in the West 50s to slightly north of Columbus Circle. The diamond dealers handle 90 percent of the diamonds that enter this country on West 47th Street.

And then there was Piano Row, on West 58th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, home to a few smallish stores that some pianists found as alluring as the Paris atelier in Thad Carhart’s “The Piano Shop on the Left Bank.” Piano Row was where pianists hoped to find the perfect piano â€" perhaps a used one that had been rebuilt, perhaps a new one. Perhaps a Bechstein, perhaps a Yamaha, perhaps a Fazioli.

Piano Row was, and is, a fast walk from other points on a pianist’s compass, like the Steinway & Sons showroom on West 57th Street. And once, before its bankruptcies in the 1990s, Baldwin had its showroom at the end of Piano Row. In June, Steinway sold its building and plans to move out by the end of 2014. It has not said where its new showroom will be.

Lately the block has had a gap-toothed look, because buildings on the north and south sides have been demolished to make way for new ones. On Sunday, one of the piano stores will leave the little building it has long occupied.

Carl Demler, the owner of the building and the store â€" Beethoven Pianos â€" said he was selling the building to the Extell Development Corporation, which bought the building next door several years ago and has recently torn it down. He said he would hand over the keys on Monday. He also said that he expected to move Beethoven Pianos into another storefront on Piano Row but had not signed a lease.

The building he is selling was built “three years before Carnegie” â€" and if you wanted to get there from his front door, you could have practiced going right, walking to the end of the block, crossing Seventh Avenue, turning right again and then crossing West 57th Street to reach the famous concert hall. Mr. Demler, a soft-spoken man who seems to have a dry sense of humor, said he discovered the building 22 years ago, when it was “just a shell.”

“No plumbing, no heat, no toilet,” he said.

He did the renovations. “The business was easier,” Mr. Demler said. “Each year, the business, it’s gone down.” He paused, then said, “The real estate business seems to be doing all right.”

That prompted a question: Has he made more from the building than he has made from pianos?

“Oh, of course,” he said. “To a certain extent, this is a hobby. I was a hotel man by training. People ask, ‘How did you end up in the piano business?’ Well, we all make mistakes.”

Mr. Demler said he was working at the Plaza Hotel when a friend called about a restaurant that was for sale. The friend said he had a financial backer, Franklin National Bank. “I lost my shirt and my sports car collection,” he said. He ended up moving the two pianos from the restaurant into his apartment and hiring a piano technician to fix them.

“Soon I had nine pianos” and an employee, he said. “The guy kept working for me for years.”

Mr. Demler told stories with attention-getting openings like “One day we got a call from Leonard Bernstein’s office.” Soon Mr. Demler was moving a piano in Massachusetts that Bernstein had inherited. Mr. Demler said he not only moved it, he rebuilt it.

He talked about the time Max Roach’s wife came to buy a bench and ended up with a Louis XV Steinway grand, and the time Yoko Ono showed him three pianos that she and John Lennon had stowed in the basement of the Dakota, the apartment building on Central Park West where they lived. And then there was the Mason & Hamlin grand he said he had just rebuilt for the singer Roberta Flack.

The writer Perri Knize discovered Beethoven Pianos in 2001, when she was looking for the perfect piano, a hunt that ended with a purchase at Beethoven and a book describing the hunt, “Grand Obsession: A Piano Odyssey” (Scribner, 2008).

She said by telephone from Missoula, Mont., where she lives, that Beethoven had “the most diverse assemblage of pianos anywhere.”

“It was a very strange place,” Ms. Knize said, “unpretentious, with an amazing cast of characters from around the world. One of the guys who worked there told me it was kind of like a pirate ship: you never knew which way it was going to steer. Carl does not really care whether he makes money, and he hires people who just came out of prison. I said, ‘Why do you do that?’ and he said, ‘Because nobody else will hire them.’ The ones I heard about were hired as movers, but some of them stole the pianos.”